What do you use to create Cave Maps?

[InWay2Deep]

I have a stick map in Adobe Illustrator and wanted to move it to something else? Our team is looking at the MNemo device so I've decided to spend some time w/ the software Ariane. They offer a free trial and I find it incredibly frustrating. Not sure if it's the trial mode limitations or what but I would not expect something to just close b/c I clicked a menu item and erase EVERYTHING i put in (there is no 'save' with the trial mode...). I can get it to map out short segments pretty well but anything complex it just 'redraws' forever and never completes. I can't export what I put it and I can't copy/paste from excel the data so it's a very tedious process each time I want to evaluate the application. It's not incredibly expensive so I'm inclined to just buy a subscription to see if it works any better but the 'trial' mode has not left me with much confidence. There is little to no documentation (that I can find) or self help/forums out there (again that I can find). So is anyone actually using it for real cave maps? Is there anything better?

 

[Mobulai]

Not that I ever used ANY of these tools, or cave dived before — I hear good things about “Survex” from people who do

That’s the limit of my very limited knowledge (mainly replying to subscribe/be notified about input from people more knowledge than me)

 

[rjack321]

I have a stick map in Adobe Illustrator and wanted to move it to something else? Our team is looking at the MNemo device so I've decided to spend some time w/ the software Ariane. They offer a free trial and I find it incredibly frustrating. Not sure if it's the trial mode limitations or what but I would not expect something to just close b/c I clicked a menu item and erase EVERYTHING i put in (there is no 'save' with the trial mode...). I can get it to map out short segments pretty well but anything complex it just 'redraws' forever and never completes. I can't export what I put it and I can't copy/paste from excel the data so it's a very tedious process each time I want to evaluate the application. It's not incredibly expensive so I'm inclined to just buy a subscription to see if it works any better but the 'trial' mode has not left me with much confidence. There is little to no documentation (that I can find) or self help/forums out there (again that I can find). So is anyone actually using it for real cave maps? Is there anything better?

Off the top of my head:
therion
walls
survex
compass

If it's just a stick map leave it in Adobe, there's little to gain by importing into dedicated cave mapping software

 

[InWay2Deep]

Off the top of my head:
therion
walls
survex
compass

If it's just a stick map leave it in Adobe, there's little to gain by importing into dedicated cave mapping software

Well, the goal is for it to become more than just a stick map. Great list appreciate it!

 

[Norwegian Cave Diver]

Go see this website…
He is a guy that surveys and draws cave maps in Mexico. Perhaps this will help.

Survey Down

Survey Down is a place for cave divers to learn about underwater cave cartography, cave survey, and exploration.

www.surveydown.com

 

[InWay2Deep]

Go see this website…
He is a guy that surveys and draws cave maps in Mexico. Perhaps this will help.

Survey Down

Survey Down is a place for cave divers to learn about underwater cave cartography, cave survey, and exploration.

www.surveydown.com

He's way above me, i actually have a few of his maps hanging up. I didn't know he was using Walls software though so good to know.

Thanks!

 

[halocline]

Go see this website…
He is a guy that surveys and draws cave maps in Mexico. Perhaps this will help.

Survey Down

Survey Down is a place for cave divers to learn about underwater cave cartography, cave survey, and exploration.

www.surveydown.com

That’s Rory, he’s a good friend! I had no idea he had posted his mapping work, but it makes sense. Thanks for the link.

 

[Norwegian Cave Diver]

That’s Rory, he’s a good friend! I had no idea he had posted his mapping work, but it makes sense. Thanks for the link.

Would be a great guy to meet some day and buy him some tacos and crevices

 

[caveandreas]

I use Ariane for all my survey work (including the complete survey of the largest underwater cave in the world...). It’s not very intuitive, but once you’ve learned how it works, you can get the job done fairly quickly. However, it does require you to avoid taking shortcuts when entering data and to pay close attention to the direction. In other words, you need to follow a line in one direction to a GPS-assigned point (a start station). That’s good practice anyway, but it can lead to situations where you shoot yourself in the foot if you’re not careful. (The "survey in and out" feature exists for a reason, even if it requires reloading the Mnemo interface to use it.)

To be perfectly honest, the reason I use Ariane is that it was the first tool where the Mnemo was treated as a first-class citizen and was already in use by the team when I joined. That said, I think Ariane has significant usability issues in its workflow design, such as the extremely frustrating "off-by-one" problem in the data wizard, how the Mnemo itself reports stations, and some pretty horrendous performance issues when the cave system becomes very large. (But for anything under 300 km, I don’t think you’d even notice in the 2D view.)

If your needs are very limited, I have a Python script that can download data from the Mnemo and output it as JSON instead of the DMP format. From there, you can manipulate the data however you see fit.

TL;DR: I love the Mnemo; I’m lukewarm on Ariane, but it works once you figure out its quirks.